Hi!

I live in a terraced house in a dormitory town of Madrid, in British/American style.

This evening a group of children in fancy dresses rang my bell. When I opened the door they said loudly "trato o truco" (treat or trick), then I asked them, what do you want? They looked at me with surprise. I said: Boys!! this is Spain, here we don't have Halloween, that's in the U.S.A.

What I was suposed to do? I don´t know about North American traditions.

Here, We go to theatre to see "Don Juan Tenorio" by José Zorrilla.
Tonight is also for us "la Noche de Difuntos" (the night of the deceased). The night when the spirits visit us. This is a heritage from our Celtic past, especially in the north west of Spain. But we don't have dress parties.
Tomorrow is the day to visit the cemeteries to take them flowers and pay respects.
In Galicia they have the "Magosto", a party where they eat baked chestnuts.
We also eat marzipans and other cakes.

So what did you do after these kids threw raw eggs at your windows after you turned them away?

It is a silly thing to me too. Imagine. Having Halloween in Spain?? Apparently it exists in England too, something I found out just last night.

And WHO is promoting such a new custom?? Who do you think? The same ones promoting it in the USA and England; the store owners, the manufacturers, and the beer and snack vendors. If anything, it should be an ADULT custom outside of USA/England, adults getting dressed in strange costumes for a party.

Saludos, MadridMan

P.S. Happy Halloween, USA/England!

http://xnipereye.wordpress.com/2007/10/28/el-origen-del-halloween/



[img]http://farm1.static.flickr.com/112/279562938_d2d2a2a911.jpg?v=0[/img]

MadridMan, last year when I lived in Spain, I encountered some trick-or-treaters in the Moratalaz neighborhood of Madrid. There were some children dressed in costumes going trick-or-treating, however, they did this on the evening of Nov. 1. It seems Spaniards think that Halloween is on Nov. 1, for some reason. Even my madrileno novio thinks that Nov. 1 is Halloween. Of course, I set him straight, that Halloween is celebrated on the evening of Oct. 31. He laughed.

However, I think the increasing interest in Halloween stems from the intense interest Spaniards have in learning English. They want to learn English and with that comes the interest in English-speaking culture (e.g. American culture). Does that make us a bad influence on them? I don't know, but I do know that they are interested in American culture.

Forgot to say, Feliz Halloween!

Ouch! Raw eggs on my house!! I didn't know that.
Fortunately those children didn't know it either.

But, tell me, what I was suposed to do? should I had given candies or money to them?

Well, in my opinion this tradition is not a bad influence, for people is just something funny.
The point is that globalization is making a the Planet something less interesting since every people on Earth abandon their traditions to take the same ones.
Another example: sometimes when I watch the news on TV about Africa I can see someone wearing a shirt of Barça with the name Ronaldinho on the back. Strange thing!.

Frankly, I'm very very surprised these (Spanish?) children were Trick-or-Treating in your neighborhood. Were they accompanied by an adult? They probably didn't get much candy from anyone that night.

The custom is, at least in the USA, if you're not participating in Halloween as a "host house", that is to say, if you're NOT giving candy, you turn off your porch light. Of course, most people in Spain don't have porches - or even front doors to the street - so you don't have front door lights which you can turn off and on.

If you don't have candy, some people do give coins. I'd advise against giving cough drops or snacks you might find under the cushions of your sofa, however. hehehe...

Yeah, Globalization is not always a good thing in all cases. I think this morning I saw the video to which you're referring of the African child wearing a Barça T-shirt. But I think the name on the back was that of Samuel Eto\'o Fils and not Ronaldinho on the back. Eto'o is from Nkon ( Cameroon ) - a country in Africa. That makes more more sense than seeing a Ronaldinho shirt, anyway, since Ronaldinho is from Brazil.

Oh! yes, you are right, it had to be Eto'o.
May be I was remembering another image on TV, probably news about Asia, or was it a Real Madrid T-shirt?

I was reading the online Spanish newspapers and I found this article wich comes to this thread:

Halloween in Madrid

Well halloween came and went for me with no knocking on the door making my dog go ballistic everytime he heard the bell, quite pleased realy because coronation street was on the tv with very dramatic scenes (ask any brit about corry)no toffees to give away so i ate all of them so it was a good night for me!
The next problem is this weekend with the fireworks (dog has to go in the kennels because he is so scared)bonfire night whoever thought this one up wants putting on the fire as a guy(only kidding)but the skies will be lit up, the noise could shatter windows and it will probably be raining and cold apart from that
HAPPY BONFIRE NIGHT
im not realy a misery im a big kid at heart and i, like the rest of em will be in my garden letting off fireworks

Hey Billy,
This is totally off the subject of anything remotely having to do with Spain or even halloween but I've discovered the the cure for dogs and firewowrks. It's a completely natural (i.e. no drugs like in benadryl) pill for dogs called Calming. The pill is scored so depending on the size of your guy, you can cut in half if concerned. I get it at PetSmart - don't believe they are in the UK but if you google either Calming/Dogs and/or PetSmart you can probably find where you can get it.